I’ve been thinking a lot lately about life. What are we supposed to do in this life? What is our purpose? Is it okay to just cruise through life and have a nice family and nice stuff and then pass on out of this life?

I’ve had these thoughts spurred on by several different sources. Francis Chan has a great youtube video that talks about this life in comparison to eternity. Seth Godin has released a new book “Poke the Box” that talks about taking action and stirring things up. And believe it or not, I was introducing the A-Team to my boys and one of the early episodes was discussing death and that we’re all gonna die sometime, so we shouldn’t be afraid of it.

My grandpa passed away about a week and a half ago. We travelled up to Michigan for the funeral. I’ve never been much of one for attending funerals. I’m not much of one for crowds in general, so a funeral just adds another level of uncomfortableness to it. This one was different though. The actual funeral was pretty much the same, but the trip itself was actually very enjoyable.

My wife and kids, my mom and dad, and my cousin who flew up from Texas all travelled to Michigan together in my dad’s motorhome. We stayed the night at a campground the night before the funeral. My uncle and aunt and a couple of their grandchildren came over to the campsite as well. All in all it was just a nice time of togetherness enjoying each other’s company and talking together.

Isn’t that really what the funeral should be more like? Why do we stand around with the casket saying good things about the dearly departed? They don’t care what we say. Instead, why don’t we all just get together and enjoy each others company and reminisce together? In fact, why do we wait for someone to die to do that? As families, we really need to find more time to spend with each other while we are alive instead of missing the opportunity due to someone’s death.

When I die, I hope all my family and friends just get together and have a big party. In fact, why don’t we just go ahead and get together before I die?